Teaching Photography merit badge

[PhotoCalifornia]

Hello,
This summer I am teaching the Photography Merit Badge at a boy scout summer camp.
As a kid I went to this summer camp, and took this merit badge, and it was boring, I hated it.
So this year my goal is to make this one of the most fun merit badge. I have 5 days, at about an hour a day. I also have 4 periods of kids a day.
Here is a link to the requirements, how can I make this merit badge fun even to the most uninterested kid.

Photography - MeritBadgeDotOrg

 

[Scatterbrained]

Well, you could bring in a hot model. That'll hold a few kids attention, especially if they're about 12yrs old.

 

[AceCo55]

Maybe some athletics, BMX or motor sports action shots - panning, low angles, night with floodlights
Light painting and swirling wire wool on fire to make light orbs.
Those collage portraits where you take lots of shots of person in same position and build up a collection of overlapping images

... but really the hot girls will be a sure winner :mrgreen:

 

[IzzieK]

The idea is to make it interesting as 12 year olds have a shorter attention span if their eyes are not pasted to their crotches (I mean...looking at their iPad, iPhone or something similar...:mrgreen so a hot model will help a lot... I think:waiting:....

 

[Overread]

Ok hot models aside you'll likely lose the first lesson making sure everyone can use their cameras - I assume they are brining their own - if not and they are using club cameras you'll certainly lose the first lesson in how to use the camera.

After that I'd focus on cool things.
Slow shutter speed tricks
Oil in water with colourful backgrounds
other cool stuff

You might also do some composition - I'd leave technical alone - so long as they can point, focus and shoot they should be fine.

 

[sm4him]

I taught this badge (along with most of the nature-related badges) on our troop level for several years. Then my oldest son went on to work at camp every summer and this is one of the many badges he taught as well.

I think some of the requirements have changed since I taught it (in fact, I only taught it one year after they allowed the use of digital cameras, but that was not as long ago as one might think!), but my son has taught it fairly recently. I'll check with him and see if he did anything cool.

Here's some thoughts about what I'd do with each requirement:
1. Light/Exposure/Composition/Angle of View/Stopping Action: As Over mentioned, do some FUN stuff. Take a look at the book Light Science and Magic; seems like I used a couple of their "experiments" including the one about lighting the egg. COOK the eggs, though...just sayin'. The oil in water is a GREAT way to get them interested and keep their attention.
For Angle of View, let them be a little silly. Have them find one thing to take a picture of--maybe take pictures of each other. Take it straight on, take it looking down on the other person, have them lie down on the ground and shoot straight up at the other person, maybe have BOTH people lie down and get an interesting perspective that way. Just let them do some extreme, weird angles--it'll be silly enough to keep their interest, but they'll still get the point that it MATTERS where you shoot from.

2. and 3. These can really be the boring part for a kid with the attention span of a gnat. Break this part up. Do a little of it, then go back to taking a few pictures for Req. 1, then back to this. Also--pick up some cheap, old cameras at a thrift store or pawn shop. If you can get a couple that don't work and aren't worth fixing, that's ideal. Take them apart! SHOW the kids an aperture blade, and the shutter curtain, all the PARTS. Many boys that age are fascinated by taking things apart (not as fascinated as they are by girls, granted, but you take what you can get).
On #3, if you have access to a computer with some processing software, have some really fun Photoshop ideas ready that they can actually play with. Let them turn a photo into a kaleidoscope, or a swirl, or give someone bulging eyes. Again, LET them be silly here; it doesn't really matter, imo, that they understand HOW to process a photo using software at this point, just that they see that it can be about more than just drudgery. Maybe even use some smartphone apps like Instagram and explain how they are basically just small versions of post-processing software.

4. This is where you want to spend a good bit of your time. Help them come up with a "story" and a plan to photograph it. Remember that "story" can be taken pretty loosely here--for instance, one year, our "story" was about a troop scavenger hunt, and the photos were all pictures of the boys wandering around finding the items on the list, or photos of the found items. One year, I had each group come up with a skit to do during campfire one night. That became their "story" and each boy came away with very different photos of the skit, since they were standing in different places, focused on different people, sometimes even taking pictures of the crowd, or the MC, or the fire. One note about this: If you do it, make sure that no child is in the skit itself for so long that they don't have time to then grab their camera and get their story pictures.
We made the story the real emphasis of the whole week and then fit the other requirements in, in short sessions around working on the story and taking pictures.

If the kids are using digital cameras--make sure you display some of their pictures every day. If you have a computer available, make a little "slide show" of some of your "favorite" images each day. If not, maybe you could pick up a digital photo frame or something to use.
Back when I did it, since they had to use film cameras (which WE had to supply, because even then, NOBODY had a film camera anymore!)--we always sent someone into town at least once during the week to get some pictures developed, so they could SEE what they'd created. They love pictures of themselves, and seeing their results will help keep them motivated.

5. This is usually another kinda boring part for the kids, because it's largely academic. But just help them think beyond the obvious portrait photographer. Sports photography would be a good one to let them explore more--mention the idea that being a pro sports photographer could potentially get them free access to the sidelines at major sport events, and you'll have their attention!

 

[Overread]

Oh dismantling cameras! No better way to teach them how it works inside than to show them all the bits! Heck with film cameras you don't even have to take them apart to show things like the mirror and the aperture blades - a few slow shutter speed shots and they can look right through the camera (leave the film back open and the lens off) and watch the blades move!


Oh and light painting is loads of fun - esp if they are also using campfires. Introduce them to night-time photography even if its something they'll have to do in their own free time. A small torch and running light trails around and writing their names and such!

 

[Steve5D]

Get the kids involved in critiquing each other's photos. That will accomplish two things: It will get them to look at their own photographs, perhaps, somewhat more critically, and it will get them involved in the process of helping each other improve...

 

[Designer]

Get the kids involved in critiquing each other's photos. That will accomplish two things: It will get them to look at their own photographs, perhaps, somewhat more critically, and it will get them involved in the process of helping each other improve...

I agree that this could help any individual, but you're going to have to teach them what to look for and what to say about it. I don't think you have enough time for that in only 5 contact hours. Besides; they will just want to take pictures.

 

[Steve5D]

Get the kids involved in critiquing each other's photos. That will accomplish two things: It will get them to look at their own photographs, perhaps, somewhat more critically, and it will get them involved in the process of helping each other improve...

I agree that this could help any individual, but you're going to have to teach them what to look for and what to say about it. I don't think you have enough time for that in only 5 contact hours. Besides; they will just want to take pictures.

Hmmm... Yeah, valid point...

 

[sm4him]

Get the kids involved in critiquing each other's photos. That will accomplish two things: It will get them to look at their own photographs, perhaps, somewhat more critically, and it will get them involved in the process of helping each other improve...

I agree that this could help any individual, but you're going to have to teach them what to look for and what to say about it. I don't think you have enough time for that in only 5 contact hours. Besides; they will just want to take pictures.

You also want to be sure you don't go too far outside the confines of the merit badge requirements themselves. There are very specific things each merit badge requires, and MB counselors should be careful not to add too much to that. However, letting them make a few comments on each other's photos MIGHT be a good idea as a way to keep their attention. Instead of "teaching" them to critique though, this COULD help engage them AND draw them back to learn more about the elements in the first requirement (exposure, composition, angle of view, etc). You could take several examples each day and ask specific questions:
--Was there a particular "rule" of composition used in the photo, like ROT? Get the scouts to see that.
--Ask them what the FIRST thing they notice about the photo is. Use that to talk about focusing on a particular subject, or maybe how light objects tend to draw the eye more than dark.

But I wouldn't take very long with any of that. In my experience, they'll lose interest in it quickly, and descend into "that photo s*cks, man!" kind of comments.